On the day after the Republicans selected election-denier Mike Johnson as the next Speaker of the House and the former president was hit with yet another fine for violating the gag order that protects witnesses and court officials, it can be difficult to see beyond the dysfunction and disarray. *
But step back and take in the broader view. Democracy has persisted throughout our history despite the many attempts to undermine it.
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) took the broad view yesterday.
House Democrats (he said) will continue to protect Social Security, protect Medicare, protect Medicaid, protect our children, protect our climate, protect low-income families, protect working families, protect the middle class, protect organized labor, protect the LGBTQ community, protect our veterans, protect older Americans, protect the Affordable Care Act, protect the right to vote, protect the peaceful transfer of power, protect our democracy, and protect a woman’s freedom to make her own reproductive health care decision.”
Jeffries pointed out that “Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election,” and “[h]e’s doing a great job under difficult circumstances.” No amount of election denial “will ever change that reality.”
In fact, people are noticing that Joe Biden is in the midst of the most successful Presidency in the last 60 years.
The facts speak for themselves. With small (or nonexistent) majorities and with constant right-wing attacks, Joe Biden continues to be what historian Heather Cox Richardson calls a transformational president. He is, in her words, putting the nail in the coffin of the Reagan Revolution which has failed our country again-and-again. Here are a few top line examples of Biden’s accomplishments:
- GDP growth came in at a stunning 4.9% in the 3rd Quarter, showing that the strength, dynamism, and success of the US economy “remains perhaps the most important story in our politics today.”
Part of the driver of this big number was strong consumer spending, another sign that Americans are not down and distressed. This “everything is terrible” narrative about the economy is increasingly feeling . . . like the false red wave narrative in 2022 . . . there is a great deal of data showing that people are content in their work and lives, spending money, aware that things are not as bad as many say.
- Biden’s “Big Deal” at the recent G-20 summit will integrate railway lines and port connections from India to Europe, across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel, leading to faster transit of goods.
- Biden sees the big picture with diplomacy, in no small part thanks to President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who have focused on bringing together international coalitions.
Voters Respond Positively When Informed About Biden Accomplishments
“Voters don’t know much about what Biden has done, and when they are informed (what campaigns do) his approval jumps.” Navigator just released some new research looking at this dynamic, which includes these two key charts:
Check out this compilation to read more about why Joe Biden, while not perfect, is the transformational president America has needed.
Journalist and author Krista Tippett says “we each have a calling, to be “friends, neighbors, family, citizens, lovers of the world.” Yes, “we are still reeling from so many kinds of loss and fear and enduring, unnerving uncertainties that the pandemic surfaced. But as humans, “we are called to wholeness.”
Seek out the wholeness. Don’t be afraid to take in the good.
More to come . . .
DJB
*The entire House Republican caucus — in complete defiance of their oath to protect the constitution — voted unanimously for Mike Johnson:
Johnson was instrumental in Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Routinely in touch with Trump, he rallied his colleagues to object to counting the electoral votes from states that Democratic candidate Joe Biden won. As Trump’s legal challenges to the results failed, Johnson pushed a Texas lawsuit against the four states that had given Biden the win, calling for the invalidation of millions of his fellow Americans’ ballots, and echoed lies about Venezuelan interference with ballots.
Johnson is also a far-right culture warrior, a Christian nationalist who “is staunchly anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ rights, anti-union, and anti-immigration;” someone who supports Russian dictator Vladimir Putin by opposing further aid to Ukraine. Johnson has also called for trillions in cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
Jeffries, in his response to the vote, noted, “Our country has often confronted adversity, and the good news is we always find a way to make it to the other side.”
“We faced adversity in the 1860s, in the middle of the Civil War, when the country was literally tearing itself apart. We faced adversity in October of 1929 when the stock market collapsed, plunging us into a Great Depression. We faced adversity in December of 1941, when a foreign power unexpectedly struck, plunging us into a world war with the evil empire of Nazi Germany.
“We faced adversity in the Deep South in the 1950s and 60s, when the country was struggling to reconcile the inherent contradictions between Jim Crow segregation and the glorious promises of the Constitution. We faced adversity on September 11th, 2001, when the Towers and the Pentagon were unexpectedly struck, killing thousands of lives in an instant.”
And then, “by placing House Republicans in this list, Jeffries tied them to the wrong side of history.”
“We faced adversity right here in the House of Representatives when on January 6, 2021, a violent mob of insurrectionists incited by some in this chamber overran the House floor as part of an effort to halt the peaceful transfer of power.”
“Every time we faced adversity, the good news here in America is that we always overcome….”
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MORE TO COME... 
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This is wonderful, David! Biden needs a PR upgrade…..
I’m glad it resonated!